Strengths:
Very practical, many useful features
Amazingly good sound for the price. Just for 'fun', I compared it to my excellent Sony TC-KA5400ES SACD player that cost three times more. The Denon's sound was different, but not ridicule at all. It was even as good/better in terms of dynamic!

Weaknesses:
Internal build / parts quality typical (low) of mass production for the large public. But it is normal for the price.

Solid build. Solid on/off button. Quality of sound.

None for the unit itself. The owners manual could have been laid out a little better.

My first CD recorder. So far I have found it to be much easier to use than I was thinking that it would be. This unit has lots of "extras" that I wasn't really looking for when I decided to buy a CD recorder. However the basic recording that I wanted to do(albums mostly)is very easy and user friendly. The sound of the recorded disc is exactly the same as listening to the source(albums). I am very happy with the performance of this unit!

Similar Products Used:

None

Build quality, digital connectors.

Dig and analog connectors don't work with both drives...requiring lots of extra cables to run everything at once.

I purchased this unit "open box" from Tweeter for $350 and received a flawless unit. The build quality is excellent and much nicer than any of the Sony machines. Forget about the new Sony 5 cd changers with CDR. Big problems. Nice unit to use and makes superb recordings from my Denon Pro DAT. Onboard Analog Devices DAC's are good but not as good as my Burr Brown equipped Adcom 1000 DAC. Plenty of dig outputs and separate connectors for each drive, both coax and toslink. Separate analog outputs for each drive. It is very similar to the pro unit. System- McCormack Pre NAD Power Adcom GDA-1000 DAC Sony S500 DVD Denon DTR-2000Pro DAT Mirage M7-SI Transparent Cabling

the text feature is cool. sound is great.im switching my whole system to denon

the auto track feature is to sensitive wont work when recording albums . iguess to much background noise

after a complete disaster with a phillips unit. i have nothing but praise for the denon. it sounds exelent, even when copying less than perfect albums. just a great unit does everything just as its suposed to . no suprizes.

Similar Products Used:

phillips (junk)

very good build quality has many useful features looks classy very good sound quality

A little pricey, but worth it

After using 2 other(cheaper) CD recorders, I found this CDR to be well worth the price. While saving the money for this CDR, I auditioned (in home ) 2 other CDR's, just to justify my desire to spend this much on a CDR. Those were the Philips 778, and Sony W1. First was the Philips($250)...what a joke! The Sony($350) was not bad, but I had decided it would be the Denon. So far( after 3 months), I have not had a single problem with it, and it has worked flawlessly. It's loaded with features, one of which is the fader that comes in handy for my compilations from live DVD concerts. It's front panel is well layed out compared to the other 2 CDR's that I used, and no plastic here, this one is aluminum and has that Denon class. One thing that I noticed right away was the power switch having a "heavy" feel to it.It is not easily pushed in, which is a good thing because during a recording, bumping the power off by accident would not be good. All of the buttons and knobs have a solid feel. The display is big and bright, and can be seen from a good distance. I find the remote to be average, no complaints. Inputs and outputs are plentiful, allowing most any configuration. I'm using this unit as my only CD player. I have boxed up my 8 year-old Denon CD player, which, BTW, still works and looks brand new...GO DENON!. My old Denon CD player does not have digital output,and the CDR-W1500 has been a step up in sound quality for me. I have several HDCD's and now I can take advantage of the higher resolution from these discs...another plus. Having recently bought a SACD/DVD-A player, I can compare the sound quality of this deck to a truly superior format, and still have respect for the CDR-W1500.

Similar Products Used:

Philips 778 Sony CDR-W1

Ease of use, quite, superb DAC, plays HDCD

Remote

Excellent player/recorder w/ enuf gain that I can use a passive preamp w/ my 2A3 tube amp! Who woulda thunk it? The DAC is super and, big bonus, it plays HDCDs!

Similar Products Used:

Phillips, Harmon Kardon

Sounds great and looks nice. Good variety of input and outputs.

Controls are not very "user friendly".

I bought my 1500 about a year ago, and it has performed flawlessly. It doubles as my CD player as well as a recorder, and it sounds great. To my ears, the DAC is as good on the 1500 as the one in my Denon 3300 receiver. The CD's created with this recorder are beautiful; I can't hear any difference between the original and the copy. I agree with Thomas that the controls aren't user friendly, but I can live with that as long as the sound and build qualities are there. Highly recommended.

Similar Products Used:

Philips, Pioneer

Very high quality sound both for original CDs and copied. Recorded LPs sound just like they did through the speakers.

Complicated, confusing manual. Non-intuitive controls.

This is a very high quality piece of equipment both as regards build and as regards performance. My unit was refurbished from uBid and it went back for service the first week I had it. I have had it a year now and it still gives me trouble occasionally with the high speed complete CD copy function. It needs to be fully warmed up. All other functions have worked flawlessly. Aside from the inability to do a "Make CD dub" when it is first turned on, it is a pleasure to use and listen to. I can hear no difference between original and copied CD's, the same with transferred LPs.

With equipment of this complexity more thought needs to go into the organization and writing of the instruction manual. I actually produced my own page for other members of my family unwilling or unable to take the time to mine the manual for how to do things.

The related playback equipment in my system:
Yamaha M 50 amp and C 60 preamp.
Onkyo Integra turntable with Grado G MM cartridge
KEF 104/2 speakers
Nakamichi BX 300 cassette deck
Revox A77 open reel deck

Similar Products Used:

Philips CDR 200